Help
Lighting and flow were the two tools I intended using to create the reef slope environment so have plumped for leds as they offer the control and adaptability over other lighting options. Flow was intended to be strong in the bright, shallow section, medium in the slope area and very gentle in the deeps.
Saturday arrived and the car was loaded down with the tank, sump and some bits and bobs - it was new but stock clearance from an lfs based in a garden centre up the road. I already had 5 aquaray led strips from the nano and a deltec mce600 skimmer plus one aquaray controler.
Building begins:
An hour or so later:
The following morning I drilled the tank,painted the back dark blue, added the first basic pipework and a 3000lph return pump
I've used 28mm flexi pipe for everything - no glue needed, very cheap and very easy to adapt. here is the inlet pipe angled along the surface.
The angled second overflow takes surface water off, and I can fine tune the tank level by screwing the pipe in or out of the fitting. Drilling the little holes made it silent
Lighting is TMC aquarays - There are 2 all white tiles side by side with a blue strip in front at the bright end, there are 2 white strips and a blue strip in the middle, and the deep dark end has an all blue and a mixed blue and white. Running along the back is a twin 54w T5 (10k and actinic). These are 4ft bulbs so they dont go over the dark end.
Lighting control is where the Leds score in my book.The 3 blue strips fade up at dawn from 2% brightness to 100% over 2 hours from 5am until 7am. At 7am the whites come on, first the strips then the two tiles and T5 5 minutes later to reduce any shock. I'm running white light for 11 hours at the moment, then they go out at 6pm and the blues spend 90 minutes dimming down to 2% brightness for the moonlight. Oh and we have the occasional lightning storm programed in as they are soooo cooooolll
Here is the tank under normal daytime lighting;
And this is just after six so full power blue leds only
This next picture is full moonlight mode - blue only at 2%%
****pic to follow******
I moved over existing stock, lights, skimmer etc during the first week and by using mature lr, media etc avoided any major spike although there was obviously nitrates, nitrites and phos. Over the last 4 weeks the moved stock is starting to sulk less and less as the water stabilises, and we've added a couple of new lps colony pieces each week. Plus a few tempting bits when I've been travelling around.
Lovely Acan colony recovering from a few bites by my ex filefish - under standard leds
Jas.Aq. March 2010
Same coral under just blue - (not photoshopped)
Lobophilia Jas. Aq. Feb 2010
Copperband butterfly - replacement as the nano one got sucked into new tunze stream
Hom.G.C
Stunning Ricordia Yuma (2) Blue leds. moved from nano
Hom.G.C Sept 09
Here are 4 quick shots of the euphilias I've got in the middle area - The aim is for a block of them, all different varieties flowing into each other
All blue led shots
Blue tipped divisa Jas.Aq
purple tipped divisa Jas.Aq
Green ancora Trmr
blue ancora Trmr
Lipstick Tang - Hml.G.C
Echno - just discovered these - lovely full colony from Jason today - daytime leds
Seriatopora hystrix - Gift from Tony for my sps end of the tank - growth tips have lengthened - pic under daytime leds
Cataphyllia - Elegance - daytime led picture
Trmr
Next section will be hardware - sump, biopellets, top up etc - back soon
ugly things that will feast on my reef!! haha
